Gary Brown: Men's hats ready for a comeback

I want to tip my hat to you. More honestly, I want to tip a hat to anybody.

Gary Brown

I want to tip my hat to you. More honestly, I want to tip a hat to anybody.

Part of my recent preoccupation with headgear is my reluctant recognition of a diminished natural covering. I find I'm wearing hats more in winter to keep my head warm and hats more in summer to keep my head from getting too warm. I've become a temperature-driven hat wearer.

So, whether I wear a hat or not has been almost entirely dependent upon what the weatherman says in the morning. Who takes style advice from a metereologist?

Fashion plate

And that's what I want to possess -- style. Hats give you style. But, it's difficult to be considered stylish if you're wearing a ball cap.

I suppose I was in style when I was a kid wearing one of those long colorful stocking caps that trailed behind you when you skated.

And I'd guess I was about 50 years ahead of a trend when mom bundled me up in hooded jackets and sent me out into the world without a chance of catching a cold.

Certainly I was in some sort of style when I was in high school wearing one of those yellow, cloth, narrow-brimmed hats that I could roll and shove in my pocket when I wasn't wearing it. But I think I was just rehearsing for being in style when I'm 85 or 90 and going to dog races in Florida.

The rest of my life has just been one long progression of hats with the names of sports teams on them.

In a ball cap, you're not in style anywhere but a ballpark. You're smart to only wear it in the home park.

I need a hat that tells people I know more than just the score of a game.

Time is right

I read an article the other day that made me think this is the right time to start wearing hats that tell people "this guy has style." Hats are trendy, the story said.

So I went online to see what was available to me.

I saw straw hats, but when people see you in a straw hat they think you're part of somebody's campaign. I saw a Stetson, and other cowboy hats, but if I bought one of them I'd also have to buy a horse. I saw berets, but I don't think I paint well enough to wear a beret.

I liked the bailey, but I got the feeling it would make me look like either the Godfather or somebody's butler.

One Web site offered one of those neat military hats with the crossed rifles on the front. But I want to look cool, not like a member of the cavalry.

My favorite hat was the fedora. But I remembered my dad wore a fedora when he was younger. When he was older, he wore one of those narrow Russian hats that sat up on the top of his head like he was wearing a small animal. And later, he slid kind of naturally into a hat with earflaps.

As I've aged, I've started to notice a lot of similarities between me and my dad. I've started to look a lot like my father.